Detroit Free Press Staff Writers

Wayne County assistant prosecutor Lisa Lindsey questions a witness during the preliminary examination of Bob Bashara in the courtroom of 36th District Judge Kenneth King at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit today. / Kathleen Galligan/Detroit Free Press

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Time after time, Bob Bashara was caught in lies.

He didn’t tell the truth about having a gun. He lied about a golf outing to Florida. And he never confessed about an affair when asked by his family.

That’s what witnesses, who testified Monday during the first day of Bashara’s preliminary examination at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice, said about the man accused of arranging his wife’s killing.

His cousin, Stephanie Samuel, testified she asked Bashara about a mistress after reports surfaced in the news media.

“Are you having an affair?” she said. “He said, ‘No.’ ”

She asked who the person was, and Bashara replied: “She’s a friend,” Samuel said.

Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey said Bashara’s former mistress, as well as his lifestyle in the BDSM lifestyle — bondage, discipline, sadomasochism — were motives for the killing of Jane Bashara of Grosse Pointe Park, who was found strangled in her SUV in January 2012.

Bashara, who wore green jail garb to court, sat mostly expressionless at the defense table. He was charged earlier this year with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, solicitation to commit murder, suborning of perjury during a capital trial, witness intimidation and obstruction of justice.

His attorneys, Mark Procida and René Cooper, chose not to cross-examine any of the witnesses who took the stand Monday, including Bashara’s mother, Nancy Bashara, and his wife’s best friend. The defense team did object to the relevance of questions regarding his involvement in the BDSM lifestyle.

Robert Godard Jr. testified that Bashara had been with women other than his wife, but that one woman — Rachel Gillett — won his heart, and the pair planned to move in together.

“They were going to buy a home together and make a life together,” Godard said Bashara told him.

Bob and Jane Bashara’s marriage was rocky and ending it had been brought up once their children were out of school, according to Monday’s testimony.

Godard testified that the couple’s relationship was strained because she would not participate in the BDSM lifestyle.

He also said that Bashara told him he had a problem with a tenant and asked whether he knew anyone who could “put a hurt on somebody.”

The comment, he said, was shocking.

Jane Bashara, who was the family’s breadwinner, had a laundry list of problems with her husband: she didn’t trust him with money, he suffered from erectile dysfunction and the couple had a mostly sexless marriage, her best friend, Patricia Matthews, testified.

Matthews said she caught Bob Bashara in a lie about a golf trip to Florida around Christmas in 2011. She became suspicious and called the person he was supposed to be with, who told her he hadn’t seen Bashara in three years and said Bashara asked him to cover in case Jane called.

Another thing that didn’t set well with Matthews was a phone call made to her on Jan. 24, 2012, the day Bashara reported his wife missing. Bashara, she testified, said: “She’s not here and she always leaves a note.”

That, too, Matthews said, wasn’t true. In three decades of friendship, she said she called over to the house and had been repeatedly told by Bob Bashara that his wife wasn’t home and he didn’t know where she was.

Also revealed during testimony was that a gun, found by Bob Bashara’s mother in a safety deposit box she shared with him, was kept for more than a year by Bashara’s former attorney, David Griem, until it was retrieved last week by authorities.

Nancy Bashara, Bob Bashara’s mother, testified that she found the gun in the safety deposit box in July 2012. At the time, her son was in jail on a charge of solicitation of murder, accused of trying to arrange for the slaying of Joseph Gentz — the former handyman who told authorities he killed Jane Bashara at her husband’s direction.

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Bob Bashara had previously said in a nationally televised interview that was played in court Monday: “I don’t own a gun.”

Nancy Bashara said when she saw the gun, which was in a pouch, “I closed it very quickly and left. I was very surprised.”

A couple of days later, family members had a meeting with Griem at the Bashara home on Middlesex. She, her daughter and her niece showed Griem the gun, and he took it, she testified.

Griem said he consulted with two highly regarded lawyers in the Detroit legal community on what to do with the gun.

“I followed the directions of both of those lawyers,” he said. “I safeguarded the gun in a locked room in the office.”

If he had left gun at Bashara’s home and the gun had disappeared, then Griem said he believes there would have been an issue.

“I don’t know if the gun played any role in the alleged crime,” he said.

Larry Dubin, a University of Detroit Mercy law professor who teaches legal ethics, said a lawyer cannot hide a weapon that had some involvement in a crime that the lawyer’s client is now charged with.

“The first question would be whether a gun is relevant to the criminal case in question,” Dubin said. “If it is relevant and a lawyer comes into the possession of that gun, the lawyer cannot hide the gun and would generally be under an obligation as an officer of the court to have the gun turned over to the prosecution.”

Bashara, who went to prison after pleading guilty to solicitation of murder for trying to have Gentz killed, has repeatedly proclaimed he is innocent in his wife’s death. Her body was found the day after her husband reported her missing.

Gentz, who pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, said Bashara offered him money to kill his wife and threatened him if he didn’t go through with it. At one point, Gentz told police Bashara held a gun to his head.

The examination continues at 9 a.m. today before 36th District Judge Kenneth King. It is expected to continue throughout the week with more than 21 witnesses scheduled to be called.